It's a rocky road to Zambia

Did you think it would be easy to become a volunteer worker in Africa? Well, it's not. The preparations for the journey will take time and energy, and can be nerve-wracking, especially if you are working full time (doing your practical training) and writing your Master's thesis at the same time as you're planning your stay. Nothing about getting to Africa seems to be easy and simple.

Firstly, I was unable to get contact to KYPT (Kanyama Youth Programme Trust; my host organization in Zambia) for a couple of months. Then, I participated in a Kenkku meeting of SYL (National Union of University Students in Finland) and learned that the chief of KYPT had been changed. Just like that, without informing me or KEPA/ETVO. The funniest part of the incident was that the e-mail address of KYPT had not been changed. So, the only thing I had to do was to change the first sentence of my e-mails from "Hi Lewis" (the ex-chief) to "Hi Levy" (the new chief), and so, I started to get responses again.

Of course, by the time that I got the confirmation of the date of my arrival from KYPT, the flights with a reasonable price had already been sold out. Eventually, I had to postpone the departure by two weeks and yet, the tickets cost 100 € more than the original ones.

For going to and staying in Zambia as a volunteer worker, you need to:
a) get flight tickets (about 1400 euros), for which you might need an international student card (10 euros; a passport-size photo is also needed)
b) get a business visa for which you need to send your passport with all kinds of papers to the Zambian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden (postal fee 10 euros). These papers include two filled-in application forms, two passport-size photos (5 euros) with signatures, an invitation letter from the Zambian employer, a letter from KEPA/ETVO, a receipt of the visa payment (50 euros) and 9 international stamp coupons (13 euros).
c) get a work permit in Zambia (100 euros) for which you need professional certificates and the invitation letter from the employer.
d) get an insurance for the whole period in Zambia (for under 26-year-olds, for 6 months, about 200 euros)
e) get a medical certificate of your health (69 euros)
f) take about 8 different vaccinations (in total, about 250 euros),
g) begin taking anti-malaria drugs two weeks prior to the departure (about 160 euros for the whole 6 months)
h) buy medicines including everything from antibiotics to anti-diarrhea drugs (in total, about 150 euros),
i) I also needed to buy eyeglasses (130 euros) as I don't think it's safe to wear contact lenses under conditions where you can't always wash your hands with clean water
j) get copies of your passport, insurance documents, invitation letters and so on
k) cover all the living expences in Zambia including the rent (100 euros per month), food, commuting and so on...

All this costs something that is, taken together, a huge amount of money for a student. Don't expect to find any estimates of the total costs of your journey anywhere. Surprising money holes will just appear every now and then as you do the preparations. Naturally, most of the offices that you need to call or go to in order to get all the documents that are needed, are open only on office hours, so if you're working full time, it's a bit complicated to get everything done.

Believe me, I've been just about to give in for a couple of times. I've been playing with the fascinating thought of getting the money that would be needed for the volunteer work period in Africa (somewhere between 6000 to 7000 euros, I guess) and going on a luxurious 2-month holiday or on a backpacker trip somewhere far away with my boyfriend and just to ease my mind. However, in Finland we have this thing called sisu ("to have the guts/stamina/stubborness"), so I have kept on dispite the difficulties. Now it's less than two weeks till the departure, and almost everything is done. So I'll just lay back and enjoy the beautiful Finnish summer before getting to Africa, the continent that I've been dreaming of for so long!

The flights

First, I'll fly to London on Wednesday morning on July 18th (let's keep fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly in the security checks). Then, I'll fly all night to Nairobi, Kenya, and finally, will arrive to Lusaka on Thursday midday. I'll be staying at a Finnish UN worker's apartment in Lusaka. Naturally, I'm a bit dissapointed for not beeing able to crash into the Zambian culture by living in a family, but I'm sure it's not a bad idea to have an easy start in Lusaka with someone who speaks your language and has an indoor toilet :)